standing under the umbrella
by ai deidara
Summary: o5/2o: And when she thought she was really alone, she remembered her best friend. — unrelated ficlets, various characters & pairings
1. HIGHWAY

_**mélange ameliorer**_

_**i.**_

_**standing under the umbrella**_

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**disclaimer—** naruto © masashi kishimoto  
**dedication—** dare i say apocalypse.  
**title—** highway, theme #30. It wasn't just any ordinary road—not anymore, not when the apocalypse has plagued every step.  
**rating—** K  
**genre—** tragedy  
**subgenre—** post-apocalypse  
**setting—** TLOTL-verse  
**characters—** sasuke uchiha  
**word** **count—** 50 (minisaga)

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Dark eyes strained to see anything other than the result of war, but the emptiness of the highway let him know there was nothing left. The lonesome road was broke and waiting for someone to walk—to ignore fear instilled by power—and make it their own. So he walked.

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**notes—**

companion minisaga to _the lives of the lost_. :D

feel free to leave your thoughts in a review.

**Ai Deidara**


	2. KNOT

_**mélange ameliorer**_

_**i.**_

_**standing under the umbrella**_

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**disclaimer—** naruto © masashi kishimoto  
**dedication—** apple-scented detangler.  
**title—** knot, theme #53. They were the bane of his existence.  
**rating—** K  
**genre—** general  
**setting—** naruto-verse  
**characters—** nagato, yahiko (implied), konan (implied)  
**word** **count—** 100

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Nagato groaned. There was nothing worse than waking up on a _Saturday_ to a bundle of tangles in the back of his head.

Unless, of course, it was asking Yahiko—_the devil child_—to help undo it. Considering Konan was out on a supply run he had no choice in the matter and quite frankly, he'd probably end up making it worse for himself in the end.

Though, as he made his way to Yahiko's room, he wondered if giving the orange-haired menace what he wanted was worth putting his pride (and, to be honest, possibly his life) in check.

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**notes—**

because knots are bitches, and i love the thought of little nagato in this predicament. :]

feel free to leave your thoughts in a review.

**Ai Deidara**


	3. SKELETON IN THE CLOSET

_**mélange ameliorer**_

_**i.**_

_**standing under the umbrella**_

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**disclaimer—** naruto © masashi kishimoto  
**dedication—** to all the lost souls.  
**title—** skeleton in the closet, theme #16. It was a dead man she never knew, so how could she feel sorry?  
**rating—** K+  
**genre—** angst/family  
**setting—** AU!Modern  
**characters—** sakura haruno, ino yamanaka, karin, ayaka (OC)  
**word count—** 830

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When the sun went down in late October, the cemetery was cold. From the moment Sakura came home with Ino. From the moment the former saw that note—_cemetery_, was all it read. From the moment the two teenage girls threw their bags to the floor and sped through dangerous traffic for three miles, it was bitingly cold.

Sakura and Ino walked up to where the former's mother and sister stood in front of a tombstone. Ayaka looked cracked, ready to break any second, and Karin was clearly conflicted as if she didn't know whether to be happy or be sad.

Sakura was simply relieved to see they were physically fine.

"...This grave belongs to my first husband..." Ayaka murmured, voice shaken. "I... I _loved_ him. I loved him more than _anything_..." Her voice cracked.

Sakura and Karin quickly realized the grave belonged to a man neither of them knew. Their mother's _first_ husband, not either of their respective fathers. Karin was her second husband's child while Sakura was her third husband's, and none of them were in contact. Sakura stared with blank eyes and Ino's stature softened. The blond enlaced her fingers with her best friend's and frowned, Sakura firmly holding Ino's hand.

The ride home was quiet. Ino would try and try and try to get Sakura to talk, but the pinkette stared ahead without a word as they drove up to her house behind Karin and their mother. The four of them went inside the brick home only to share the silence.

Ayaka tried to clean and she tried to cook but she ended up sitting in the living room with all eyes on her; lip wobbling, limbs trembling, and tears steadily falling from her eyes.

While Sakura and Karin stood and watched their mother slowly break down, Ino's eyes softened the more she stared with them. She just couldn't understand why neither of them were doing anything to help their crying mother, who clearly needed a shoulder. The woman had lost any and every chance to be with the one she loved.

He was gone.

He was _dead_.

So Ino took her own chance chance since neither Sakura nor Karin would, absolutely ignorant of how they felt. _If_ they felt. She took one small step, then two, and before she knew it her arms were wrapped around Ayaka, and the latter bawled in her arms. She released full-fledged cries and wails and choked sobs to the point of hyperventilating and whispering loudly how she missed _him_ and she was so so **so** _sorry_ for not accepting him because he didn't want children, and it broke Ino's heart because she really witnessed this happen before, but to her _father_.

Even Ino knew rejection hurt. Sometimes it tore people apart, it didn't matter if the feelings were one-sided. Things have to be seen from a different point of view to completely understand another's sorrow.

Ino teared up, bit her lip, and before she could bring herself to wipe the forming tears she began sobbing for the woman, while Sakura and Karin stood where they were not knowing what to think.

Karin felt a pain shoot through her chest when Ino held _her_ mother. Ino cried. With _her_ mother. It was an unspoken understanding, Karin knew that. Just by the way Ino held Ayaka. Ino had a big heart, one that was too big for words, and eyes that have seen just _too_ much but still, Ino held back because she was strong. She just wanted to make someone's day a little bit better no matter how badly it killed her on the inside.

And Karin felt like an ant for just standing there watching, _waiting_ for something to happen that would lead her and Sakura to hold _their_ crying mother. And that was what made Karin rip her glasses off and throw them to the floor, and cry from the pain of feeling unwanted. She fell to her knees and grasped the carpet between her fingers, ignoring how the mascara burned her eyes, and for the first time in her life she just wanted to disappear.

Sakura was blank. She watched her best friend cry with her mother, and her older sister fall to the floor in grief, and yet she was... blank, empty. She wasn't sad or angry or jealous, but she couldn't find it in herself to weep for any reason. The man Ayaka was crying for was a man Sakura had never met, and yet she felt no pity for her own mother.

She felt no pity for her best friend.

She felt no pity for her sister.

Sakura sat down on the leather sofa that adorned her living room and rested her elbows on her knees, holding her head in her hands.

She felt like a skeleton. Nothing but a bunch of cold, sick, careless bones.

Then and there, the thought of being skeletal was the only thing that seemed to have bothered her.

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**notes—**

not much to say here.

feel free to leave your thoughts in a review.

**Ai Deidara**


	4. THE YELLOW FLASH LEGACY

_**mélange ameliorer**_

_**i.**_

_**standing under the umbrella**_

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**disclaimer—** naruto © masashi kishimoto  
**dedication—** pirates, the ocean, and summer.  
**title—** the yellow flash legacy, theme #19. To be a pirate was what he wanted. Two months, and he would be.  
**rating—** K  
**genre—** Adventure  
**setting—** AU  
**characters—** naruto uzumaki, jiraiya (implied), minato namikaze (implied), kushina uzumaki (implied)  
**word count—** 552

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Naruto breathed in; embracing the saltiness that was of the vast ocean air, gazing at the clear skies ahead with a grin of achievement plastered on his face. The mild wind tossed his sun-kissed blond locks and coontails braided with beads as the black tattered sash flowing around his waist violently whipped behind him. Clammy palms latched onto the black railing of the large golden ship titled '_The Yellow __Flash'_ in both bewilderment and astonishment.

His godfather told him the stories about his father while he was growing up. The man that built, quite possibly, the greatest pirate ship of all time from top to bottom, spending endless days and sleepless nights perfecting what Jiraiya had said would be his biggest waste of time. Minato Namikaze was known throughout the regions as a real charmer. Ladies flocked to his corner of the ocean wherever he went, and he was a particular genius in situations where his crew got him into potential trouble. Jiraiya even said that Minato sailed The Yellow Flash through the deadly whirlpools of Uzushio to find a woman by the name of Kushina Uzumaki to ask for her hand in marriage, even after he had to rebuild his ship from when the whirlpools tore it apart.

Of course by now this woman was Naruto's mother, and by the time she found him on the ship his father gave to him—to start off the family tradition—she would, to be blunt, strangle him.

Naruto chuckled. He just couldn't wait to take the ship—his _father's _ship—out on the ocean. Even if Kushina said he would do nothing but sail, it would still be great. Only two months until he was eighteen, since that was when his mother decided he could actually sail the ship, then he would be out on the open water with Jiraiya, and the long days ahead of them would be closer than ever. The thought of watching day turn to night and millions of stars flashing in the ocean was exciting, and maybe even looking for treasure appealed to him. The green flash would surely be a sight to see, though knowing his father had never seen it made him doubt.

But no doubt in his mind could stop him from his dream of sailing away from the port town of Konoha. He wanted nothing more than to be like his father; a man with fame from the crying village of Ame all the way to the mountainous island of Kumo and back.

Naruto sighed at the many thoughts of wonder floating in his mind, and his instinct as a son kicked in. He tore his eyes away from the sunset and looked past the men and their rum, the children running about in rags, the women in corsets, and all the others that prepared for a night out at a tavern as the tomato red hair he knew to be his mother's slowly came into vision. He shook his head with a laugh and, before she could make it to him to embarrass him in public, he gave a pat to The Yellow Flash. And with one last glance to the pink sunset and expansive ocean at hand, he was on his way.

Two months. Two months and it would all be his.

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feel free to leave your thoughts in a review.

**Ai Deidara**


	5. FESTIVAL

_**mélange ameliorer**_

_**i.**_

_**standing under the umbrella**_

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**disclaimer—** naruto © masashi kishimoto  
**dedication—** friends who stay no matter the circumstance.  
**title—** festival, theme #9. And when she thought she was really alone, she remembered her best friend.  
**rating—** K  
**genre—** angst/friendship  
**setting—** naruto-verse  
**characters—** sakura haruno, ino yamanaka, shikamaru nara, naruto uzumaki (implied), sasuke uchiha (implied), kakashi hatake (implied)  
**word count—** 627

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Confetti—like the fireworks high in the obsidian sky—sprayed above Sakura's head as colorful particles dusted her hair, quickly followed by ecstatic giggles.

Ino readied another party popper, holding her lit sparkler between her teeth as it sent light sparks all around, tingling her face. Her free arm was linked with Shikamaru's, and the latter smiled the smallest of smiles. It was hesitant, but a smile no less.

Sakura could tell Shikamaru wasn't really enjoying his time out in the crowd—children's laughter and the booming of fireworks filtering in their ears every other second, people from other villages crowding nearly the entire village. He'd probably rather be watching the clouds on the outskirts of the village even if it was a bit late, but he stayed for Ino, though he _probably_ wouldn't mind her watching the clouds with him.

The night was nice, nonetheless; the sky dotted with dim stars and clouds that reflected the many colors of fireworks whenever they exploded. It was beautiful if Sakura said so herself, but out of the three of them, Ino seemed to be the only one really enjoying herself.

"Come on, Sak!" Ino cheered, sending confetti over the pinkette's head once more, earning a low, elongated groan from her, "this is no time for moping, you know."

Sakura forced a smile to her lips, shaking some of the confetti from her pink locks with one movement of her hand, and sighed, "I'm sorry, Ino. I'm not feeling up to par tonight. Must be the flu or something," she said with a fake laugh, clearly not wanting to move from her position on the only empty bench in Konoha.

Ino's brows furrowed. Her eyes followed Sakura's until they met with the Hokage tower.

"You don't need to be worried about Naruto. Hinata's probably with him, so he shouldn't be too busy. Well, not with work at least..." The blond murmured thoughtfully, smiling, "I would think even Sasuke's enjoying the show. I mean, seriously! So—"

"—you two go on ahead. I'll catch up in a minute," Sakura bit the inside of her cheek, doing the best she could to give Ino a reassuring smile. The blond looked as if she wanted to keep fighting on, but Shikamaru turned and tugged her arm lightly, and she followed. She looked back once, but what soon lost in the growing crowd.

Gazing at her own feet, Sakura suddenly felt twelve again. Everyone was celebrating the fourth anniversary of the end of the war but her. Team Seven was even separated than ever before now, although she knew they weren't exactly a _team_ anymore. Naruto had duties to tend to. _Hokage_ duties. Kakashi was busy being Kakashi. And Sasuke...

She didn't know what to think of Sasuke. He was silent, and he was probably silent because she never once attempted to talk to him—unlike Naruto or Kakashi. The two of them were on him any chance they got while she sat back and waited for something to happen, as always.

Sakura found herself easing off of the bench. As desperate as she was, as much as she wanted Team Seven to be the way they were many years ago, she knew all good things had to come to an end eventually. Almost as soon as Team Seven had been established, they'd been eradicated.

It was... Inevitable, but she still had her best friend through it all.

As she walked into the crowd to find Ino—the one person she was sure would never disappear—she never let the tears brim to the brink of crashing to the ground. And as those familiar giggles came into earshot, Sakura decided not to let this festival go to waste as she did the last ones.

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**notes—**

not my best. it's kinda old, but a concept i'm sort of fond of.

feel free to leave your thoughts in a review.

**Ai Deidara**


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